BR. J. I'NI. nai . HIST., (>. 1993 ItJ 



BKNHS FIELD MEETING 



Bernwood Forest, 31 July 1993 



Leader: Paul Waring. This meeting was held jointly with members of Butterfly 

 Conservation and the Buckinghamshire Invertebrate Group. The leader was joined by 

 19 members and friends during the day and by 42 people at night. The Forestry 

 Commission had kindly provided keys so that we could get cars, generators and other 

 overnight equipment into the woods rather than leaving them in the public car park. 

 As Claude Rivers remarked as he sat in the cavalcade of 14 cars entering the wood 

 for the day-time session, the general public had reason to be grateful because 

 entomologists would otherwise have completely filled the car park! Twenty-four 

 mercury vapour lights and at least one actinic were operated during the night-time 

 session and we succeeded in dispersing traps throughout the whole of this 1000-acre 

 site, including six lights in Waterperry Wood. 



The main objectives of the meeting were to note insects generally during the 

 day-time session, which started at 11.00 a.m., and then to record as many species 

 of macro-moths as possible during the night-time session to provide 1990s records 

 to up-date and possibly add to the historical list of 431 species recorded up to 

 the late 1980s (Waring, 1988, 1990a). Copies of the full list for the Shabbington 

 complex were issued for annotation and interest to those that required them. Before 

 we started sampling, Dr Rachel Thomas gave a brief presentation on the management 

 history of the wood — the subject of her PhD thesis (Thomas, 1987). This provided 

 the context for interpreting the changes in the insect fauna (e.g. Peachey, 1980; 

 Waring, 1990b) and also drew attention to special areas of recent management. 



On a good night it is possible to record upwards of 100 species of macros at this 

 time of year in woodland sites. Unfortunately the weather was far from ideal during 

 both day and night sessions. By day it was at least dry but rather cool with only 

 intermittent sunshine. The butterflies were sluggish. Sixteen species were seen of which 

 the most notable was the white admiral Ladoga Camilla (L.) of which two individuals 

 were seen visiting flowers of creeping thistle Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop, and bramble 

 Rubus fruticosus L. agg. near the Oakley Wood entrance. The other species, in 

 generally small numbers, included the large, small and Essex skippers Ochlodes venata 

 Br. & Grey, Thymelicus sylvestris (Poda) and T. lineola (Steph.), the latter comprising 

 a fair proportion of the total, the large, small and green-veined whites Pieris brassicae 

 (L.), P. napi (L.) and P. rapae (L.), the purple hairstreak Quercusia quercus (L.) 

 and common blue Polyommatus icarus (Rott.), peacock Inachis io (L.) and red admiral 

 Vanessa atalanta (L.), speckled wood Pararge aegeria (L.), marbled white Melanargia 

 galathea (L.), gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus (L.), meadow brown Maniola jurtina (L.) 

 and ringlet Aphantopus hyperantus (L). The numbers and distribution of marbled 

 whites within this wood are rather variable but on this visit over a dozen were seen 

 along the main east-west ride. The verges of several of the major rides looked rather 

 better in terms of the abundance and variety of flowers than in some recent years. 



The day-time group spent some time around the pond which the Forestry 

 Commission created in the centre of the wood in the winter of 1986/1987. There is 

 now a large stand of the greater reed-mace or bulrush, Typha latifolia L., by the 

 pond and inspection of the stems revealed the workings of the bulrush wainscot 

 Nonagria typhae (Thunb.). Dragonflies and damselflies seen included Aeshna grandis 

 (L.), A. cyanea (Muller), Sytnpetrum striolatum (Charp.), Enallagma cyathigerum 

 (Charp.), Ishnura elegans (van der Linden) and several Lestes sponsa (Hanse.). 

 Some of the moths recorded by day included the yellow shell Camptogramma bilineata 

 (L.), Six-spot burnet Zygaena filipendulae (L.) and larvae of the cinnabar moth 



